


Do They Think That Walls Could Hide You?

by evanie



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), Sweeney Todd (2007)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Sweeney Todd, Blood and Injury, M/M, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 11:53:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14544162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evanie/pseuds/evanie
Summary: Luke falls in love with the the ward of Judge Harris through glass of a window paneor the Sweeney Todd Cake AU nobody asked for





	Do They Think That Walls Could Hide You?

**Author's Note:**

> TW MINOR VIOLENCE AND BRIEF MENTIONS OF BLOOD. Otherwise, please enjoy!

The day was incredibly dreary, but the gloom was a constant in the city and comforted him somewhat. He was able to see the good in most things, and was grateful for the petrichor that was evident wherever he went. After sailing around the world, being home was like a breath of fresh air in a sense. There was something so rejuvenating about coming back to your home after months of being away, and he couldn’t have been more glad. Travelling home from Australia had been a bit strange after the arrival of Mr. Hood, a man who’d been exiled to the island as atonement for his crimes. The ship and crew had been paid a hefty amount to return him safely, and the journey back to London took weeks but wasn’t unpleasant even in his melancholy presence. He hadn’t seen him since leaving the ship to find a place to stay. While there was no place like London, he didn’t remember the streets from his youth and struggled immensely looking for Hyde Park. Busy people pushed past him on their hurried ways to unknown destinations as he stared at unfamiliar street names, losing himself in the space. Next thing he knows, he’s outside of a large house, elegant and lavish on the exterior. He’s looking for someone to ask for directions when through a small window on the side of the house, he spots the most beautiful person he’s ever seen.

The boy is gazing off at something in the distance, hands moving quickly over a sketchbook as his lips move softly from behind the glass panes. His coffee brown eyes flicker over his work and turn back up as he stops to study the distance once more. His lips never stop moving and Luke can imagine sweet words tumbling over, a saccharine song filling the room as he draws his subject. He sweeps back a dark curl and spots Luke, looking him over with a soft smile. The corners of Luke’s mouth jump at the returned gesture and his heart flutters because the other’s smile is simply breathtaking. Quickly a look of fear spreads over the other’s face and he drops the sketchbook and runs away from the window. Luke’s confused and his smile drops, a feeling of sadness and dread washing over him.

“Alms! Alms for a miserable woman on a miserable chilly morning,” a beggar calls out near him, coming closer as he looks into the boys window, searching for any signs of life. He feels deeply troubled and glances around the street for anyone who might be able to help him in his attempt to find out who lived in the house. The beggar woman called out a few more times and he felt around in his pocket for any extra money to give to her. She passes his right shoulder and he hands her the money, choosing to help her out in a time of need rather than keep the money for himself.

“Thank you, sir!” she says, pressing into his side and holding his hand in gratitude. He isn’t really paying attention as his eyes are still fixed on the window. He glances at the woman and wonders silently if she knows anything about the house and who owns it.

“Ma’am?” he questions quietly, looking at her under her tattered bonnet and catching her wild dark brown eyes for a few seconds before she moves her attention elsewhere, “Could you tell me whose house this is?”

He points up to the house and her eyes follow his fingers, glancing at the boy’s window and she nods.

“That’s the great Judge Harris’s house, that is,” she says looking from the house back to him, and back at the ground. He lets out a small noise as if asking her to go on about what she knows. 

“And the young man who resides there?” he asks in attempt to get any information about the beautiful boy he saw drawing through the window. She vigorously shakes her head for a while, a look of disapproval spread over her features as she glances back up at the window.

“Oh, that’s his handsome little ward, Calum. Keeps him snug, he does,” she says looking Luke in the eye, a little suspicious as to why he’s asking about the boy. She gives him a once over and blinks rapidly, “All locked up.”

Luke finds it a little unnerving and pulls his bag closer to his body.

“So don’t you go trespassing there, or it’s a good whipping for you,” she says shaking a finger at him, less threatening than it is a small warning, “Or any other young man with mischief on his mind,” she says giving him a knowing look. He swallows deeply and nods as she turns and starts calling out for alms once more.

“Alms… Alms for a desperate woman,” she calls out, walking the opposite direction to Luke. He walks around the front of the house from the other side of the street, glancing in the windows and praying he steals another glance of the boy in the window but gives up when no life is visible through any of them. He sighs and turns his heel when he hears someone call out across the street.

“Come here, lad.” a finely dressed man says from the front door. He scanned the area around him, seeing no one else the man could be talking to and makes the cross to the other side of the street, “Come in,” the man says as Luke walks up the steps.

The house is filled with furniture when he steps in, but lacks human warmth and the buzz of life required to make a house a home. It seems even more dreary than the landscape outside and his overall mood plummets as he follows the man into the parlor. He quietly apologises for intruding in the house but the man just waves it off.

“You were looking for Hyde Park, you say?” the man says offering him a seat in a skillfully crafted seat in the corner of the parlor, made of a deep chestnut colored wood and silky gray covers. He remains standing without realising.

“Yes,” he says, nodding a little and he’s forced to push his long hair out of his face as a sign of respect towards the older man, “It’s very large on the map, but I keep getting lost,” Luke offers to try and amend his faults with the man when in truth, it doesn’t really matter why he can’t find his destination.

“Sit down, lad, sit down,” the man says motioning to the chair in the corner. Luke doesn’t question it but does as he’s told, as he knows it would be immensely disrespectful to defy someone in their own house. Luke licks at his chapped lips out of nervous habit and he shifts a bit in the chair when he finally sits, not sure why he feels so uncomfortable in the house.

“It’s embarrassing for a sailor to lose his bearings, but there you are,” he offers as his reasoning with a small and sheepish smile, almost as a way to make up for his intrusion into the man’s house. The man looks interested at his words and moves over near a bookshelf directly in front of Luke.

“A sailor?” he asks, running his fingers over the binding of each individual book, eyes averted from Luke completely. Luke swallows and grasps for the words to say, fully knowing his work wasn’t respected among most.

“Yes, sir. The Bountiful, out of Plymouth,” he says recalling his hometown in a positive light. While London truly was a change of scenery, Plymouth would always be his home and would always be the most beautiful place to him. He thinks he’ll return someday to visit his family and appreciate it for what it is.

“A sailor must know the ways of the world, yes?” the man says, turning to look at Luke. Luke nods cautiously and scratches gently at the laquer over the wood of the chair. The man looks less than pleased for a few seconds before turning back to the books.

“Must be practiced in the ways of the world… would you say you were practised, boy?” the man says stopping and resting his hand on the bookshelf. Luke isn’t sure where the man is going with his words so he remains mostly quiet except for a small question.

“Sir?” he asks, not meaning to be disrespectful, but he doesn’t know why the man is suddenly so cross with him. His face is twisted and Luke sinks back into the seat a bit, waiting for what’s to come.

“Such practices,” the man says brushing over the books once more. There are many lining the walls, but each of them is unmarked and Luke hasn’t figured out what the man’s point is.

“The geishas of Japan… The concubines of Siam… The catamites of Greece… The harlots of India,” he says, the venom in his tone growing with everything listed, and Luke finally understands what he’s trying to get at and the blood drains from his face, “I have them all here. Drawings of them.”

“Everything you’ve ever dreamed of doing with a woman… or a man.” he says suddenly growing furious in the face, and it takes all Luke has inside of him not to duck out and run from the house. Everything in his system is begging for him to leave the house, but he sits tall and tries to face the man to the best of his ability, “Would you like to see?”

“I think there’s been some mistake,” Luke stammers out, his sweaty palms down on the chair but he doesn’t move. He wants to wipe them on his trousers so badly, but any small sign of weakness would get him in more trouble he fears.

“I think not.” the man says in a steely voice. He steps closer to Luke, anger burning in his eyes and Luke finally realises that this must be Judge Harris, “You gandered at my ward, Calum. You gandered at him!” The Judge yells grabbing Luke by the shoulders and shaking him like a ragdoll. Luke is too afraid of the situation to fight back, and fears incarceration if he does. He shakes his head in rebuttal, but the man is insistent and laughs humorlessly.

“Yes, sir, you gandered.” he says, pulling Luke up from his seat in a violent manner. Another man enters the room, beady eyes filled with hatred boring into Luke’s soul and making his skin crawl.

“I meant no harm,” he says trying to excuse his unintentional disrespect, but it sorely lacks any real force in the Judge’s eyes.

“Your meaning is immaterial,” the judge says sourly, waving Luke off with immense distaste.

“Mark me, if I ever see your face on this street again, you’ll rue the day you were born.”

Luke wants to protest but he’s turbulently dragged away from the room, and dragged through the house into a back room. He can’t feel his bag anymore and he hits his foot on a wall in the process, a sharp pain shooting up his leg. A door is shoved open and he’s engulfed in light before a freefall starts, his body hitting the ground with a hard thud. He braces himself with the palms of his hands, but his mouth hits the ground and he feels his teeth crack, blood seeping from his gums and dribbling out of his nose. 

“Hyde Park is that way, young sir! A left and a right and straight on, you see?” the second man says, poking at Luke’s aching back with a walking cane, forcing him back down on the pavement. He mortified, but he’s in a lot of pain from being slammed to the pavement. He tries pushing himself up, but the man strikes him down again.

“Move on!” he says, not allowing Luke any time to get up from his place on the ground. He spits out some of the blood that’s obscuring his breathing, and flips over to try and get up that way when his bag is thrown on his pounding chest. Another breath of air is forced out of his lungs and he lets out a noise of pain.

“You heard what Judge Harris said, little man,” he pushes Luke’s shoulder down with his cane, seething with distaste and superiority over him that make him feel entirely insignificant, “Next time, it’ll be your pretty little brains all over the pavement,” he says moving his cane to the middle of Luke’s forehead, pressing hard against it and forcing it into the ground. He winces deeply in pain as the man turns around and finally goes back inside.

Luke picks himself up off the ground to the best of his ability, leg shaking and ankle throbbing as he stumbles out of the alleyway. He can feel blood running down his face, but he staggers out, looking back up at the boys window.

“I’ll get you out of there, Calum… You’ll see,” he says wiping the blood from his lips as pedestrians watch him struggle down the road, ragged and bloodied from his encounter with Judge Harris and the other man. He’s angry and afraid for Calum but with all he has, he doesn’t look back. Not even once.

**Author's Note:**

> This AU was incredibly self-indulgent because I love Anthony and Johanna from Sweeney Todd so much. Comment any feedback, I'm always looking to improve!!


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